“The Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating fake text messages sent to some House Republican lawmakers from someone impersonating a top aide to Vice President Mike Pence,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Several House Republicans have received the texts, and at least one member has been repeatedly engaging with the imposter, who posed as Alyssa Farah, Mr. Pence’s press secretary and a former House staffer.”
“The U.S. military plans to scale back its role in Somalia and curtail airstrikes against al-Shabab insurgents after having taken out many of the group’s senior operatives, two senior U.S. officials told NBC News, the latest signal the Trump administration is looking to cut the number of troops deployed around the world.”
“The move reflects an assessment by the administration that while the Shabab insurgency remains a threat to the Somali government and neighboring countries, it does not pose a direct danger to the U.S., current and former officials said. And it follows President Trump’s abrupt announcement last month that he had ordered U.S. forces out of Syria and asked for plans to be drawn up for a possible drawdown in Afghanistan.”
Maine state Rep. Don Marean told the Bangor Daily News that he was quitting the Republican party to become an independent but did not offer an explanation for his choice to leave the GOP.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) “will make her first trip to Iowa as a potential 2020 presidential candidate just days after formally launching a committee to explore a White House bid,” the Des Moines Register reports.
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) “took her ceremonial oath of office using a copy of the Constitution rather than a religious book, as most members usually do,” the Arizona Republic reports.
“Sinema’s move, while legally irrelevant, may only heighten speculation that she is an atheist… Officially, Sinema identifies herself as religiously unaffiliated, and is the only member of the House or Senate to do so.”
President Trump argued that the Soviet Union “was right” to invade Afghanistan in 1979 because “terrorists were going into Russia,” a head-scratching aside that was widely criticized as historically inaccurate, CNN reports.
Said Trump: “The reason Russia was in, in Afghanistan was because terrorists were going into Russia. They were right to be there.”
“Women lawmakers had to wait until 2011 to get a restroom off the floor of the House. On Thursday for the first time, there was a line to get in,” the Washington Post reports.
“The opening day of the 116th Congress was heavy with symbolism underscoring women’s historic gains in power as Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) retook the speaker’s gavel and more than 100 women were sworn in on the floor of the House. Beneath the portraits of male speakers past, history seemed to be changing.”
“The day served as a powerful reminder of the shifting gender dynamics of the House as Democrats ascend to power. When Pelosi arrived on Capitol Hill in 1987, there were 23 female members. As of Thursday, there are 102, nearly 90 percent of whom are Democrats.”
White House adviser Kellyanne Conway argued that President Trump “no longer bears responsibility for the shutdown that’s resulted in the closure of approximately a quarter of the federal government, impacting 800,000 federal workers,” ABC News reports.
Said Conway: “He doesn’t own the shutdown any longer.”
“She argued that because the House of Representatives passed a package last month that included the president’s requested $5.6 billion in funding, the buck now passes to the Senate. That measure expired with the end of the 115th Congress earlier Thursday.”
“The House of Representatives passed legislation to fully fund the government Thursday evening, but it is heading nowhere, and Congress is bracing for a potentially long shutdown,” BuzzFeed News reports.
“Both bills passed Thursday with the support of all Democrats and just a handful of Republicans (seven Republicans voted in favor of reopening most of the government through September, while five Republicans voted in favor of the DHS spending bill).”
“But it will do no good. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has already said he will not bring the bills forward for a vote in the Senate, despite senators unanimously agreeing to a similar plan last month. And President Trump has said he will refuse to sign off on the House package because it does not include border wall funding. Trump has dug in on demanding $5 billion in wall funding be added to any spending bill.”
“For weeks, Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, has remained conspicuously on the sidelines, insisting that it was up to President Trump and Democrats to negotiate an end to the partial shutdown of the federal government,” the New York Times reports.
“But with the shutdown soon to enter its third week, and Mr. Trump dug in on his demand for $5 billion to build a border wall, Mr. McConnell for the first time is facing pressure from members of his own party to step in to resolve the stalemate that has left 800,000 federal workers either furloughed or working without pay.”
“I think he is without question the worst president we’ve ever had. We’ve had some bad ones, and there’s not even a close second to him.”
— Former Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV), quoted by the New York Times, on President Trump.
Worth watching: Rachel Maddow reviews instances of when President Trump parrots Russian narratives on international affairs in a way that seems oddly out of character from how Trump seems to understand the world.
Newly elected House Speaker Nancy Pelosi criticized President Trump’s proposed border wall as “a waste of money” and “an immorality” during a news conference hours after reclaiming the gavel in the new Congress, CNN reports.
Said Pelosi: “We’re not doing a wall. Does anybody have any doubt? We are not doing a wall.”
Our final stop in Southeast Asia was Saigon — or Ho Chi Minh City, depending on which side of Vietnam’s civil war you were on. Although Vietnam’s government portrays the country as “reunified,” there are still many in the southern part of the country who feel like they were invaded and occupied. Continuing to call the city Saigon is one small way of showing resistance.
The photo below is the rooftop where CIA operatives helped evacuees up a ladder onto the last helicopter in April 29, 1975, shortly before Saigon fell. It was just one of many sightings that brought back so many memories from the Vietnam War era.
It will take months to process all I’ve learned, but we’re finally headed home. Political Wire will return to full speed this weekend.
John Cassidy: “The rap on Warren is that she missed her best chance in 2016, allowing Bernie Sanders to seize the mantle of populist tribune, and blundered last fall by rekindling the controversy over her ancestry. These are backward-looking critiques, the force of which is yet to be determined. What we know for sure is that, with at least a dozen Democrats thinking seriously about entering the primary, it will take someone resolute, resilient, and well organized to prevail. The successful candidate will need a message that distinguishes her or his campaign from the pack and resonates with Democratic voters. Since the prize is a head-to-head contest with Donald Trump, the winner will have to be someone who doesn’t shy away from confrontation.”
“On all of these grounds, an argument can be made for Warren, who has been in the Senate since 2012. Ever since Trump launched his 2016 Presidential bid, she has been mocking him.”
Washington Post: “In Trump, congressional Democrats and Republicans have found a principal who often changes his mind on a whim, whose messages to Capitol Hill can be mixed and who undercuts his own vice president and advisers in high-stakes negotiations with little hesitation.”
“But despite Trump’s unpredictability, lawmakers are wary of negotiating with any of his aides because they believe only Trump speaks for Trump — a lesson that has been reinforced in recent weeks.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.